Portable solar setups that will charge a 12v battery well. Also tiny windmills?

[Nutz4sand]

Curious if any of you have any experience with a solar panel that will charge 12volts easily and would recommend a good one?

Looking for smaller but will take bigger. Going to take a look at the boat shops as I want to be able to easily charge a large deep cycle battery (or two one after the other).

My end goal is to make a little dolly or wagon with the battery in the bottom. A 12 to 120v inverter in the middle and the solar panel on top with a way to make it face the sun as much as possible.

Basically a self renewing portable outlet. Looking to make it as bad ass as possible. Not afraid to spend a bit for the right stuff.

But wondered if any of you have ever bought a solar 12v charger you were REALLY impressed with.

Also as a funny on a side note. 

Any one ever mess with those tiny RV windmills for battery charging?    Thanks!  Bill

[dsrace]

enemy would be the only guy i know to ask. he set his camper up on solar.

[dsrace]

also do a search for what folks are doing with props and alternators to make wind generators. pretty simple and cost effective really.

[Nutz4sand]

Yeah i was looking at the alternator bit. You get a permanent magnet alternator and they can do some shit.

There WAS a guy showing how to make pretty good blades even out of PVC pipe (4 inch I think) He cut many designs till he found some that worked good and these connected to a simple hub on the alternator in place of the pulley.

This is certainly not out of the way if I do not find a better setup.

[fabr]

I personally know nothing but have read quite a lot of threads on the subject. From what I know it will take a lot larger panel than you want to do what you want. There is a member on www.glamisdunes.com forum by the name of socaldmax that knows his stuff and also sells whatever you need. I would look there but I got my ass banned for joining a competing forum.  socaldmax also got mad about it . He's a good guy though and I would trust whatever he says . If you contact him,say hi for me.

[fabr]

Yeah i was looking at the alternator bit. You get a permanent magnet alternator and they can do some shit.

There WAS a guy showing how to make pretty good blades even out of PVC pipe (4 inch I think) He cut many designs till he found some that worked good and these connected to a simple hub on the alternator in place of the pulley.

This is certainly not out of the way if I do not find a better setup.

and it takes some serious wind to spin them     don't believe everything you see on the webs. I can see no way you will spin an alternator with any type of reasonably sized fan that will do the job. Maybe I think you are wanting more amp hours capacity than what you do though.

[Nutz4sand]

I am not expecting miracles Fabr and I have seen this done. Just never the details and specs they used. A little bit all day long into the deepcycle batt(s) for when its later needed is all.

I have some Ok but small solar cells now that keep my batteries in my cars up. Before I had them they would drain down and not start at all. Now its fires right up.

I can chain gang these but I am betting there is better. They are not very big either.

As for the ALternator yes the size of the blades may be far to large for a portable getup. But I was also thinking of a folding prop but I do not want  it blowing over either.  I am looking at different 12 volt generators now.

[fabr]

Give socaldmax a shout. Do you have a target for how much power you will require and for what amount of time per day?

[dsrace]

what competeing forum? and  banned from another forum     can't say i'm surprised but still 

[Nutz4sand]

Fabr  Not targeting a specific amount so much as trying for a good setup to get as much as possible reasonably. Not cheapening out. Just not UBER high end.

When the setup runs out it's done till some recharging will be able to happen. Still not sure how many batts it's gonna have and am thinking there will be a one batt unit on a dolly and a multi batt unit on wagon.

[fabr]

You still have to have a target before you can design.

[Nutz4sand]

That's true but for now I am seeking knowledge of good working parts worth buying VS overpriced do not work good items (I already have to many of these!).
Until I really know what I can get in terms of a solar cell that actually makes a certain amount of current over time (given a certain amount of sun which is of course a HUGE variable) I cannot say what I wish for.

Since I do not know the best ones capability I have not really figured out what I am going to get. Just searching for the better parts and going to see what I can get it to do.  If I have to have two or three later to "chain gang" them I will.

[fabr]

socaldmax will have the answers you seek.

[Yummi]

Here you go.  These folks go remote and as a group are "green."  Well, except for the fossil fuels of the rigs. 

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/power-systems-12v-solar-gen.48/

[dsrace]

really good info there.